Howdy,
I was born and raised in the Portland area. I lived in/around Portland for 20 years! I must say that Portland and the entire western half of Oregon is VERY different from the eastern half of our beautiful state. Central/eastern Oregon is much more rural, lots of country folk who are typically quite friendly. The left side of the state is liberal/democrats, the right side is conservative/republican (on average).
Anyway, I am not a very big fan of Portland but that is simply because I don't like big cities, and I don't like the climate. It's too dark, dreary, cloudy, rainy - we technically have 4 seasons but to me it always felt like 2 seasons: rainy and cool, or on and off rainy and warm. Depression is very common, and it's definitely NOT Alaska but I still would recommend taking Vitamin D supplements to make up for the lack of sunshine.
People in Oregon are typically very friendly, but people tend to be more quiet and keep to themselves compared to SoCal. I live in Alaska now and miss how polite people were in Oregon, I really took it for granted!
Regarding housing prices - holy CRAP you will be just fine if you have more than $200k. I HIGHLY recommend living in a suburb of Portland. Commuting isn't all that bad. I lived in Lake Oswego most of my life and the commute to Portland is quick and easy, but I got to live in a nice, INCREDIBLY SAFE, smaller town. In Lake Oswego you can walk to the grocery store, library, movie theater, plenty of parks (depending on where you live), this seems to be the case in many Oregon towns. But Lake Oswego is very expensive. Beaverton is getting to be a popular place to live, and so is Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood (slightly more rural). It is very easy to work in Portland and live in one of the suburbs, we have the public bus Tri-met system and also I-5 other highways make it an easy commute to just about anywhere.
When the weather is nice it doesn't take too long to get to the beach in the summer (driving west) or to the mountain in the winter (driving east). I think the Portland area is decent, but I wouldn't raise a family IN Portland (with the exception of Southwest Portland). I don't think SE or NE Portland are safe enough for kids. The public schools in Portland are TERRIBLE too. The schools in Lake Oswego and West Linn are pretty nice. Same goes for Tualatin and Sherwood.
One very distinct thing about Oregon is the economy - it's terrible right now and I think it will keep getting worse for the next 10 years or so. So if you can't land a decent permanent job BEFORE you move it might be a risky place to relocate. But you can easily buy a house in the Portland area for under $300,000 if you're not too picky and don't mind a short commute. IF you want to really save money there are NICE places to live in Oregon that are much farther from Portland but you can get a house right now for LESS THAN $100,000. Real estate is doing horribly right now, which is great for buyers!!!
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